Agile branding for Sweden’s fastest moving automotive company

CEVT is a joint Swedish-Chinese car development center for the Geely group, developing platforms for Volvo and Geely cars as well as the all-new Lynk & Co. We help CEVT develop and activate their brand to position themselves as a key player in the industry.

Challenge

When our collaboration started in early 2015, CEVT was growing at an astounding pace and had a pressing need to keep recruiting. The visual identity of CEVT was all over the place, and without a strong purpose and a coherent way to communicate it, it proved hard to find and retain talent. That’s why it was vital to strengthen the brand and position CEVT more clearly in the automotive industry, both in Sweden and internationally.

Insight

To meet both the immediate and long-term needs of an incredibly fast-moving company, the brand platform must be developed iteratively. Our approach to the process became in itself characteristic of the company CEVT – lean, iterative and always focused on getting results.
Over time the project grew from the quick fix “We just need to look like the real company that we are”, to a complete brand platform that can help the organization expand and develop with a shared purpose.

Solution

The first step was a lean brand identity with the most needed elements. During the year following the first rollout, we worked with CEVT to establish a stronger sense of the brand. In the process, we worked with large and small groups – from junior engineers to top management. Together we developed a complete brand platform, including brand values and a brand purpose. The latest iteration also includes a richer identity, with a unique illustration and animation style that is activated through a new web page and other internal and external communication.

Results

An immediate effect of the new visual identity was making the rapidly growing company look modern, interesting and “for real”. The new identity also strengthened the connection to other Geely brands and supports CEVT’s role as a quality label on Geely products. The rapid expansion of CEVT continues and the company gradually got more media exposure. CEVT’s strengthened employer brand is helping to both attract and keep talent.

Dynamic meetings between people and technology, urban landscapes and vast nature, Scandinavia and Asia. Paired with precision and sharing a sense of what CEVT is about, without showing actual products.

Brand values

To launch the brand values within the whole organization, we developed a series of short, playful and unpretentious stop-motion movies that capture the spirit of the values.

Stefan Lundin PR & Corporate Communication Director at CEVT

It’s a special challenge to build and communicate a brand for a company where change is constant and many projects are confidential. We needed to build our brand based on who we are and how we work – and do it all at an immense pace. I’m incredibly proud of the results.

Client

CEVT

Industry

Automotive

Founded

2013

Location

Gothenburg, Sweden and Hangzhou, China

CEVT is a development centre for the Geely Group, covering all aspects of passenger car development. CEVT currently consists of some 2000 people and is growing fast.